The Central Unit role

Implementation guidance for senior managers 

Importantly, for ALL MODELS, the role of e-portfolio implementation manager/champion was critical to effective implementation. However, this central role was undertaken by a range of quite different people in different institutions, for example, Pro-Vice Chancellor, seconded academic, student support manager. We use the term 'e-portfolio manager' to signify the role rather than as a job title, and would point out that the specific ways in which this role is or is not connected into fora of policy-making and practice in the institution, affect the nature of the implementation. The following examples highlight this role and other key aspects that underpin the implementation models.

At Southampton Solent University the initiation was middle-out, the e-portfolio champion being a Reader in Teaching and Learning who was a member of the Learning and Teaching Committee and worked closely with the Careers and Employability and the Learning Technology units during the implementation process. She saw the need/opportunity for an e-portfolio implementation once the VLE Moodle and CareerBox (an online careers guidance package) were in place, asking herself 'Where is the student in all this?' This led to an internal project to trial the Mahara e-portfolio, enabled by Teaching Quality Enhancement Funding (TQEF), in which the e-portfolio was envisaged as an electronic storage space for students, accessible from and integrated with the VLE, which they could use to organise and present information to prospective employers.

The project generated real research results, real examples for people to see, which were presented to the Senior Management Team. This group welcomed what was a research-based, worked-up solution to the challenge of supporting the development of students' employability, a major strategic priority for the University. From this a further presentation was made to members of the Vice-Chancellor's Office.

Carried out both through the curriculum and through promotion of independent use by students individually, this implementation is a collaborative, cross-institutional development, with both tutors and careers advisers encouraging take-up, and further students individually picking up Mahara by contagion, empowered by the availability and usability of excellent examples and support materials provided by the Learning Technology Unit.

Institutional implementation occurred in Summer 2010 and Teaching Fellow posts in each faculty were created (part-time secondments) to lead the roll-out and embedding of the e-portfolio alongside generic outcomes of other TQEF projects. The breadth of commitment across the institution is reflected in the scope of the membership of the recently constituted Mahara Development Group which brings all the stakeholders together to oversee continuation of the implementation. It is made up of the Reader in Teaching and Learning, 4 x Teaching and Learning Fellows, Learning Technologist, Employer Engagement Specialist, Careers and Employability Manager, Careers Advisor, Learning Systems Development Manager, plus Visiting Members (Students, Lecturers, Support Staff, Strategic Development Projects Consultant). The Mahara Development group advises the Dean of Learning and Information Services.

(VIDEO of Barbara Lee, Reader in Teaching and Learning discussing the implementation journey)

At the University of Wolverhampton the initiation was top-down and implemented through the central unit, the Institute for Learning Enhancement (ILE) which has responsibility for developing and supporting the Teaching and Learning Strategy. This central unit reports to Executive groups and gathers evidence of practice to support institutional decision-making. Key roles such as Director, Assistant Director, Technology Supported Learning Co-ordinators in Schools and administrative staff are funded by core university funding and HEFCE Teaching and Learning money has been made available for Learning and Teaching projects. It is involved in developing bids for external funding that have supported e-portfolio developments, for example the HEFCE-funded CETL, the Higher Education Academy funded Pathfinder project and a number of JISC funded projects.

The early days: Personal Development Planning (PDP) provision was funded from 2002 and in 2003. A role of the Student Support and Development Co-ordinator (an e-portfolio champion) within the ILE was to look at how the PDP provision could be developed to align more closely with the QAA guidelines. A review of PDP processes informed the decision by a strategic working group to develop a web-based, non-linear set of tools to support PDP for students throughout their studies, resulting in a model for PDP processes called PACE (Personal, Academic, Careers and Employability) and the need for an electronic toolset which was duly developed by a company called Pebble Learning, a very early version of PebblePad. An e-portfolio Co-ordinator post was created in 2004 and piloting of the PACE processes using the PebblePad tool occurred in selected volunteer schools – they were either the Learning Co-ordinators' schools or recommended by them. In 2004 there was an external evaluation which resulted in the system being made available to all staff and students in 2005.

Scaling up and embedding/integrating: Until 2007, the use of PebblePad continued to grow organically from practice. The University involvement in the Higher Education Academy Pathfinder project in 2007-08, instigated by the ILE, was the first institution-wide initiative intended to embed e-portfolio use. The institutional focus within the project became the integration of e-PDP in all schools with each school integrating e-PDP into 2 Level One modules. Staff appointments were made to support this project. In 2008 the Blended Learning Strategy resulted in the creation of Blended Learning Advisors posts (2 initially but now 5) - their remits included the support of e-PDP. In 2009 an institution-wide e-portfolio evaluation informed the Learning Works project, a refocusing of the whole undergraduate curriculum to move from a 15- to a 20-credit framework and to include whole-year modules at all levels in which e-PDP is integrated, running alongside single semester modules. In 2010 there was an update to the original Blended Learning Strategy to take it through to 2012.